The Catalan who shuts out Mourinho and wins the hearts of Portugal

BarcelonaRobert Martínez (Balaguer, 1973) has won the hearts of the Portuguese. When he received the offer to be their national team coach in 2023, he knew he had to move to Lisbon and learn Portuguese. He held his first press conference with a fairly decent Portuguese, but after losing in the quarterfinals of the European Championship in 2024, he felt a certain pressure, as there was talk in Portugal about the possibility of choosing José Mourinho as their national team coach for the 2026 World Cup. With the Nations League in the bag, Martínez can breathe easy. Mourinho will have to wait.

"What we have is a group of players who give you that, the chance to believe. We can have the dreams the fans want. After 30 games, you start to feel a certain confidence to win titles. There are 16 or 17 players who are at the same level and who allow the coach to use different concepts, just like in the match." Portugal has a magnificent young generation, and Martínez knows how to get the best out of Cristiano Ronaldo at 40 years old. Portugal plays well and tactically; they knew how to stop Spain. The way they approached the match was correct, and they nullified the play of Lamine and Nico Williams. "I want to dedicate the win to Martínez. We have to applaud what he did, and I can tell the Portuguese that we will continue on this path," said Pedro Proença, president of the Federation (Federació) yesterday. The message is clear: the Balaguer-born coach is on the right track, in part because he has also won Cristiano Ronaldo. With him on the bench, the striker continues to score goals.

A life abroad

When Martínez arrives somewhere, he gets involved. So much so that his friends were surprised when he visited them because he spoke Catalan with an English accent, after so many years in the United Kingdom. Now the accent is Portuguese. Martínez is a football vagabond who remembers buying 1982 World Cup stickers as a child. He was a good footballer and has become an even better coach. Trained at Balaguer, he even made his debut in the First Division with Zaragoza. But he only played one game. Afterwards, he returned home to Balaguer, until 1995, when he signed for Wigan in England with two friends from his time in Zaragoza, Seba and Isidro. Together, they were welcomed in Wigan, a city with a rugby tradition, and were nicknamed the three friends, referring to a famous film in the United Kingdom. Over time, he bounced around various English clubs. In the 2001/02 season, he tried his luck at Motherwell in Scotland, where he met his wife, Beth. He would later play for several teams before making the leap to coaching, where he has managed Swansea, Wigan—winning a Cup with them—and Everton. "I performed all the functions of a manager," he said.British: plan the vision for the next three or four transfer markets, invest in young people with great potential and have the necessary time to work with them. From then until now, I have maintained this approach: making decisions with a perspective on the future, such as whether to stay at the club or in the national team for the next 50 years. It's the only way to know how to do it," he explained in an article in The Coaches' Voice.

This British culture has left its mark on him: he wants to control everything. He wants to be on top of every detail. After shining at Swansea, he signed for Wigan, where he experienced both sides of the football spectrum: in one week they were relegated to the Second Division, but they also won the Cup. "In just 72 hours, we went from winning the first FA Cup in the club's history to being relegated. This contrast describes very well the journey not only of the manager, but also of the players and football teams: you go from being at the top in a matter of days. It's a situation that allows you to learn a lot from everything that happens and gives you experience. The next step was Everton. "In the first campaign we got 72 points, the highest record in the club's history in the Premier League, an achievement that reflects the consistency and daily work of the team. From then on, expectations soared. We didn't qualify for the Champions League, but we did qualify for the Europa League away, something that hasn't happened since the 1960s. We also got a 3-0 win against Arsenal at home and had some memorable experiences in European competitions... We reached two semi-finals in 2016, in the League Cup and the FA Cup because the big shame was not being able to complete. The fans deserved it."

It was then that he received the offer to manage the Belgian national team. A team that had a golden generation, with Hazard, Courtois, Lukaku, Kompany, De Bruyne... "Since I was a child, my football memories are linked to watching the World Cups on television, especially those of 1978 and 1982. Qualifying for the 2018 World Cup took almost seven years" until reaching the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup, where they were on the verge of reaching the final. "After finishing third in the World Cup in Russia, I was offered the possibility of combining my work as a national team coach with that of sporting director of the Belgian federation," he recalls. But in the last World Cup, the team didn't make it past the first round, and Martínez understood that the project had to be ended by mutual agreement. That door closed, and the Portuguese one opened. "The national team has generations of iconic players, combined with talented young players hungry for success. This combination has always attracted me, and I felt I couldn't turn down the challenge. Over the years, I've learned to value players in three key ways: their individual talent, their experience, and their attitude—this is their key to Christ. When I talk about a player like Christ, he's undeniably one of the best in the history of football. His experience is also unique: the only player to have played in six European Championships and earned over 200 caps," he explains.

Robert, who has lived abroad almost his entire life but hasn't forgotten Balaguer, where his family lives, has managed to withstand the pressure and is now generating a consensus in Portugal. A country where they are driven to win the title they're missing in 12 months: the World Cup.